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Harry Austin Driggs has had
an active, useful and eventful life, making each moment count for the
utmost, and as warden of the provincial jail at Fort Saskatchewan he
occupied a position of trust and responsibility, which he capably filled
for the past nine years, or until July 1, 1923, when he was transferred
to Lethbridge. Mr. Driggs is a native of the United States. He was born
in Adrian, Michigan, July 13, 1872, a son of Edwin B. and Maggie
(Hastings) Driggs, the former a native of the state of South Carolina
and the latter of Scotland. The father was a farmer and stock raiser,
following those pursuits in Michigan and Texas and gaining a position of
leadership in his chosen line of activity. He specialized in pure bred
stock and was the first breeder of Hereford cattle in the Wolverine
state, securing his stock in England.
Harry A. Driggs secured
his education in Michigan, graduating from the Palmyra high school in
1891, and he afterward became a student at the Orchard Lake Military
Academy, which he attended for two years. Subsequently he came to
Canada, reaching Lethbridge, Alberta, in 1896, and for the next two
years he worked as a cow-puncher. In 1898 he returned to the States and
enlisted in the Thirty-first Michigan Volunteer Infantry, for service in
the Spanish-American war, being stationed in the south until the
cessation of hostilities. In 1899 he again made his way to Alberta and
in the fall of that yea!' engaged in ranching near Grassy Lake, in the
Taber district. He held that property until 1908, when he disposed of it
in order that he might give his attention to his other interests. In
1907 he had established a private bank at Grassy Lake and continued its
operation until 1913, also conducting a general store during that
period. In the spring of 1914 he was appointed warden of the new
provincial jail at Fort Saskatchewan, in the Victoria district, and
filled that position with efficiency and conscientiousness until he
transferred from Fort Saskatchewan prison on July 1, 1923, to Lethbridge.
He has also done important work as a civil engineer, assisting in
surveying the townsites for Magrath, Sterling, and Grassy Lake, of which
he was first president, also first reeve of Eureka municipality, and he
was likewise engaged by the Lethbridge Irrigation Company in survey work
on their canal, remaining with them until the work was completed.
Mr. Driggs was married in
Michigan, on the 21st of February, 1900, to Miss Clara Anne Mitchell, a
native of that state. He has attained the thirty-second degree in
Scottish Rite Masonry and is an exemplary representative of the craft.
He is faithful to the trust reposed in him and thoroughness and devotion
to duty are his outstanding characteristics. He is regarded as a man of
high moral character and substantial worth and the respect which is
accorded him is well deserved. |
